This is it!

Palm Cove NP - Nick stopped long enough to take a photo

...and even long enough to photograph leeches....

We dropped into Palm Cove NP on the way to Murwillumbah yesterday which was a lovely rainforest, but I’m afraid I didn’t see that much of it as I power walked along the path – it had been raining quite a bit so if you stopped still for more than a few minutes your shoes got covered in leeches. Nick’s not that fussed about them but I’m not a big fan… so the kids and I walked through the forest in double quick time. It was a lovely drive through the hinterland though, great views of mountains covered in mist, and also a lots of farm gates selling fruit – lady finger bananas for $2/kilo!

We crossed our last time zone and had a great night with friends in Murwillumbah, not long enough of course, and headed off again unenthusiastically this morning for another boring driving day. Tomorrow we’ll hit Sydney and three more groups of friends which we’re looking forward to, and then home early next week – so tonight is our last camping night, the trip is over!  We’ve found a nice grassy free campground at Coopernook NP (thanks to Doug’s recommendation), and it even has a flushie!

After 4 nights in houses it actually felt a bit weird setting up the tent again tonight, but I was also feeling a bit sad while cooking dinner that it’s all over with. We’ve had such a good time – or as I keep saying to people, I can’t pretend that I’ve enjoyed absolutely every moment of the 6 months but have never wished I was at home instead, and always looked forward to where we were going next.

We asked the kids what they would miss about camping tonight and there was a stony silence – they’re pretty tired as we got here very late, which might explain why they can’t think of anything, but also after comparing it with staying in someone’s house where there was TV and internet, their two great loves at the moment, it’s hard to compete. Maybe they’ll think of something after we’ve been home for a while.

One thing I know they’ve learnt is how to make a fire all on their own, a great life skill, and they’ve certainly learnt a bit of patience sitting on long car journeys. They’ve finally learnt that sometimes compromising will get you an ice-cream, even if it’s not the exact flavour you wanted, have learnt to recognise the Southern Cross in the sky, and have worked out when they can concentrate best at writing their journals (Conor prefers after dinner, less distractions, whereas Daniel needs to be before dinner). There are lots of other things I know they’ve learnt along the way that might only become apparent later on, and I think on the whole they’ve enjoyed seeing different places, but will be happy to be home.

For those interested in stats, the easiest ones to hand are that we’ve gone about 32,000 kilometres in 6 months, set up and packed up the camper trailer 92 times, visited 43 National/Conservation/Nature Parks including 9 of Australia’s World Heritage Areas (Purnululu, Uluru, Great Barrier Reef, Daintree, Riversleigh Fossil Site, Ningaloo Reef, Fraser Island, Kakadu, Shark Bay). Nearly 30% of the trip cost has been on fuel (I thought it would be more actually), the most expensive paid being $2.63 in Balgo, NT, the cheapest $1.39 in Maryborough, Qld. I don’t know if I’m jinxing us because we’re not actually home yet, but we’ve only had one flat tyre, and lost our annex poles once. I’m still enjoying our trailer, and am even looking forward to getting it out again at Narooma in a couple of weeks. It’s good to have a weekend away to look forward to, as it will probably feel a bit strange to stay put in one place. We’ll just have to start planning our next trip!

Kicking back in Brissie

We’ve had a lovely relaxing time with friends in Brisbane, not doing anything terribly much except hanging out and chatting. We visited South Bank yesterday and the kids had a good time at the water park, went to a movie the day before (I wouldn’t bother with The Zookeeper) and enjoyed the kids’ favourite (baked) meals such as home cooked lasagne and pizza.

We know we’re back on the East Coast now as it bucketed the day we arrived into Brisbane, and started again last night, ready for us to leave. Only a short trip to Murwillumbah to more friends but we’re hoping for clear skies for our last camping night on Friday….

Fraser Day 3

Burning off on the island

Even the sign is smoldering

Lake Wabby and the sandblow coming in

Smoke haze over the sandblow

Trees getting slowly covered by sand

Trudging up the sandblow

We felt lazy this morning so decided to hang around the campsite and relax this morning – it’s a funny feeling when everyone else leaves en masse either to sightsee or go to the ferry and you’re left alone. Then a few new people arrive – some of them having their first beer after setting up at 10am! After breakfast we played some boardgames then headed off on another bouncy bumpy inland drive to Lake Wabby. It’s beautiful forest to drive through (and it keeps changing) but I can’t say that I subscribe to the 4WD enthusiasts’ idea of driving just for the fun of driving. It’s fun on the bumpy sand for about 5 minutes, 10 at a push, and then I just find it annoying and tiring (and I wasn’t even driving) because you’re being constantly thrown around and have to drive quite slow. Having said that, as Nick commented, it’s great here because there’s a bit of everything – beach, lakes, rivers, woodland, rainforest etc.

We did the short walk down to and around Lake Wabby which was nice but hard work on the sand dunes – or sandblow as this one is called. It is slowly encroaching, moving inland at 1m a year, and as it comes it slowly covers plants, kills them which clears the way for more sand to come in. The funny thing is that on the top of the dunes that are coming in there are now new plants starting to grow, and the cycle starts again…. We also saw two goannas along the walk, plus one at the campsite mooching around for scraps. They seem so plentiful that I’m wondering if they have any predators, although Nick thought dingoes might eat them. There’s burning off going on here too at the moment (at least we think it’s burning off), very close to some of the roads, and it means that the smoke is so thick it covers the sun often so everything is hazy, and the light comes through the thick foliage with a very red tinge, kind of eerie. It wasn’t that warm either today (maybe why they were burning off) – although Nick pointed out that on Friday while we were at Rainbow Beach the water temperature was 20 degrees, whereas the maximum temp in Canberra was 15 degrees……

Fraser Day 2

Wading up Eli Creek

Crab on the Maheno wreck

The Maheno wreck

The Maheno wreck

At Lake McKenzie

The beach is also an airstrip...

The Maheno wreck

Lake McKenzie

Walking Wanggoolba Creek

Walking along Wanggoolba Creek

Wanggoolba Creek

I was lying in bed this morning before the others woke up and it suddenly hit me – our time on Fraser Island is pretty much the end of the holiday. We’ve only got about a week to go and apart from a few travelling nights it will all be staying with friends and family (which I’m looking forward to) once we leave here. A few days ago when I was sick of all the one nighters and driving driving driving I was happy for it to finish, but now I’m not so sure, not quite mentally ready. Nick says that he’s completely in denial, but we’re both glad that we got to come to Fraser Island and it’s a pretty nice place to finish off the camping bit.

We’ve had a great day today, dictated by the tide of course as you can only drive inland in the mornings at the moment. So we started with a walk along the Pile Valley Circuit which left from the campsite and followed the Wanggoolba Creek through the rainforest. It’s a beautiful creek, crystal clear water as there are hardly any nutrients in the waters here to colour them. The only water in the island’s creeks and lakes is rainwater, and with the white sandy bottom it’s as clear as glass. After that we drove to Lake McKenzie which is treated like the beach here, it was full of backpackers and some families lying on the sand by the water’s edge sunning themselves, and swimming in the lovely clean water. We had a dip and a play in the sand followed by lunch – all these sort of places have a fenced picnic area to keep dingoes away, which feels kind of weird. We’ve only seen some of them while driving on the beach this afternoon (maybe they’ve seen us other times) but the campsite is fenced as well I suppose.

We obviously weren’t keeping up with the tides as when we finished lunch the car park was practically empty, as everyone must have been heading for the beach road. We did the same and drove along the eastern coast to the wreck of the Maheno. It’s a very wide beach which is just as well as people drive all over the place sometimes, overtaking on the left or wherever, or just stopping in the middle for a chat. It was actually strange to see a couple walking along since it feels like a highway (speed limit 80k’s) and they’re kind of taking their life in their hands! Having said that, there’s lots of people fishing at the edges but it doesn’t strike me as somewhere for a stroll.

The ghostly Maheno used to be a passenger cruise ship around the time of WW1 I think, then sank on the way to Japan having been sold for scrap, then in WW2 was used for bombing target practice. It looks pretty cool stuck into the sand, all rusty and still amazingly with some strips of wood on what would have been the deck. After that we dropped into Eli Creek which is another beautiful clear freshwater creek that runs into the sea, which Nick and the boys waded up while I took the boardwalk. Lovely pandanus growing alongside and another guy was trying to catch an eel from the banks.